Closed Of Stone and Djed Part II[Sayana]

[Clyde Sullins]

34 Summer 516

Rising early in the morning, before even the sun rose, Clyde found himself staring at solid stone.

His earlier suspcion that a big of the rock had broken off, leaving the odd flat shelf area, seemed more and more likely.

Below the level of the shelf, far down and off, he could see what might be rubble or stone churned up and broken. Perhaps, he thought to himself as he examined the stone, the remains of a long ago rock slide.

On the uphill side there was a sudden rise in height, almost like a wall about three or four feet high though with a small slanting towards uphill, before the ground leveled off and slowly began to climb and dip and move as the normal mountainous terrain did beyond.

The odd terrain of the flat area with the sudden rise in height surely made sense as a bit of the mountain breaking off. How it had happened though puzzled him, but then he didn't understand mountain's and geology and such too well.

As he gazed at the short wall of stone at the high end of the shelf, he traced an outline in his mind. If the terrain carried on in the general sloping direction it was before the dropoff formed by the wall, and carried on downhill to the other end of the flat space, it seemed to roughly match up...

He spent another chime or so just staring at the wall of stone, ignoring all else, focused on his task. Within his mind he slowly drew a new outline, imagining the stone of the wall of stone not as a wall of stone, but as a dug out cave.

He pictured the cave digging directly into the side of the drop off. If such was done somewhere else the cave would be too weak, too close to the terrain and might cave... But, he supposed, since there was the drop, and if he started low, the deeper inward he dug, the more and more solid the stone above would become. If he went in a straight line inward, due to the upward turn of the mountain he'd be putting himself deeper and deeper below the surface of the mountain.

A cave would be a simple structure, and a simple thing to design and build.

As he thought on this another idea struck him, a house cut into the side of the mountain, hollowed out with Reimancy, a nice fancy structure with walls and such cut right into the stone face.

It would take forethought, he couldn't just go in cutting into the stone, but he supposed it he took his time with it the task could be done.

[Sayana]

As Syna’s rays spilled through the thin fabric of her tent, the Eypharian slowly stirred from her slumber. As predicted, she was sore from sleeping on the hard ground, but waking up to sunlight rather than cold dark stone walls more than made up the difference. With no need to dress, having slept in her clothes from the previous day, she silently emerged from her tent to find Clyde staring at the rocky cliff face.

He was deep in thought. When was he not? When he was talking or teaching… A smile formed upon her face and she stood there, a silent shadow, for nearly a full chime. There was a faint growl from the dog when Rye finally noticed her presence and that’s when she decided to speak up.

“Careful you don’t bring down the whole mountain. I’d like to be able to return with my tent still intact. And of course, without you under some pile of rubble.” Sayana teased. She stepped up to the rock face and while she wasn’t blocking Clyde’s view, she was within easy sight of the mage. With her hands upon the rock, she traced her fingers over the divots and folds and wrinkles of the stone. It was not all one colour either. Some of it sparkled with light whereas other parts were black as night.

“It’s not quite all the same,” she commented with a frown. “And there are cracks and folds… There might even be enough soil in there for things to grow.” The Eypharian glanced at the sparse vegetation, but then pointed out the solitary tree that marked their campsite.

After that she quickly lost interest and started rummaging in her tent, packing a few items into her bag. She grabbed a couple of bites to eat and grabbed her waterskin. Just as she was about to set off, she caught sight of a half burned stick in the fire pit. One end was charred black, while the other was mostly untouched. Curiously she picked it up, and scraped the blackened end against some pale stone of the mountainside. It left a very distinct black streak and with a nod, she decided to carry it along in one of her low hands.

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t get too… distracted.” Sayana chided in a light tone.

The Eypharian set off along the mountain slopes seeking the same stream she had found the previous day. This time, however, she occasionally scratched marks upon stones to make it easier to find her way back. At times she scrambled along the rocky slopes, hopping down from boulder to boulder, but mostly she managed to find a less arduous path than the time before.

Sayana grinned when she heard the familiar sounds of water and rapids, and it didn’t take long for the sound to guide her to the mountain stream. She refilled her waterskin and drank deeply. It was already warming up to be a hot day, and Syna had hardly been up for a bell. She took her boots off and for a moment waded into the chilly water. When was the last time she had a proper bath? Daringly, she bent down and to the side to try to dunk just the back of her head and hair into the water. A gasp escaped her lips at the sudden chill and she leapt out of the stream, shaking her dripping locks of hair.

She then had the sudden urge to cross the stream to see what was on the other side. There seemed to be more trees and vegetation. Maybe there was a chance for a bigger fire than what they had the previous night. As she walked along the rocky banks, she searched for any sort of feasible stepping stones or shallow area. Unfortunately, where the water was calm, it appeared to be the deepest, and where it was shallow, the water was far too swift. Her eyes fell upon a large piece of driftwood. At first she noted that the fallen tree had some potential for firewood, except due to how wet it was. Then she realized that it might actually be large enough to help her cross.

With the new idea flickering to life, she now looked for a place where she could drag the fallen tree to make a reasonable crossing. Brilliant. There were three sturdy looking stones and then a fourth one after a long gap. The fourth was close to her and she could see the tree spanning the gap. She set down her bag and anything else she carried and went to the piece of driftwood caught in the rapids. It was a struggle, to say the least, but she managed to half-drag and half-carry the large piece of wood over to the spot she thought it would span. Certain branches kept the trunk from rolling, and any branches that would be sticking up in her way, she snapped off.

With a child-like sense of delight, Sayana grabbed her belongings and nimbly stepped across the thin tree. She could feel it sagging under her weight, especially at the middle but she made it to the rock about half-way across the stream. With a few leaps, she jumped between the remaining rocks and made it to the other side. Her heart raced and she grinned back at her ‘handiwork’.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Feeling out through Cha, Clyde extended his aura sight, latching onto the stone of the mountain before him, examining the wall of stone's face.

As he began to feel out at the stone's aura, he heard Sayana speaking from behind him.

In an offhand manner, not bothering to look at the woman, he responded while still examining the stone.

“Destruction is easy. Making things is a much harder task.”

Examining the stone face of the wall, he felt out the cracks, the uneven bits, and the bits of broken off stone which marked the high end of the rock shelf. Standing his head came higher than the wall of stone, and he could see the slowly curving ground on its top heading upward up the mountain.

Most of the cracks were surface cracks, just bits where things struck or caused some damage during the fall he assumed had occurred.

However as he examined the stones aura more closely, felt along the edges of the object within his aura sight instead of trying to see within the depth of the stone, he noted one deeper crevice which started near the middle of the wall a bit off center towards his right.

He silently nodded in response to the hypnotists parting, focusing on his task.

In his minds eye he was tracing the snaking route of the crack. On the surface it seemed small, but he could see it twisted and turned within and along inside the stone, widening in a few spots and tucking and falling or rising in others.

Perhaps in a few centeries, with enough wind and rain, it would become a cave on its own. Surely then the simplest thing to do would be to speed such a process up. Expanding and forming an existing thing into a cave would perhaps be a good first test for his designing and building with Reimancy.

Sayana had been gone for some time when he began to extrude res from Cha, sending the silvery liquid res forward into the crack and seeping into the stone.

As he did he thought out his plan. How the do what. How to form what. What he wanted the end result to look like.

He knew that it was much easier to take away, to destroy, than to make, and so he didn't want to do too much and end up not having enough material. Which meant he needed to go slowly and expand bit by bit, not taking things too fast.

Speeding up the process of extruding the res and soaking it into the stone, he felt out, picturing in his aura sight the curves of the stones surface, and within his mind the image of the final product he desired.

With a stroking and pushing motion of his res, he pressed on the small crack that was the crevice. Mentally imagining a tongue licking at a salt tower, he imagined the res licking and eroding away at the stone, the same as wind and rain would in time. Then he added transmutation, subtly turning the surface bits of the stone into air with a expression of his will and power.

What started as a tiny crack on the surface quickly expanded as air was released as the stone was devoured in the process. The crack was a quarter inch, nearly invisible. A half inch, growing larger. A inch across, bits of the deeper crevice could now be seen even from the surface.

Driving in the res he pushed and licked more, releasing the res in transmutation bit by bit as it was infused into and bonded for a moment with the stone it would replace with air.

Small gusts of wind blue backward at him, while others blew along the crevice and deeper into it. Through his connection to the air as it blasted inward, for the moment that it was still a part of him and connected, he felt the contours and shape of the crevice in another way besides his aura sight.

Using this he expanded a bit more slowly, driving deeper and wider.

When he stopped for a moment to rest and examine his work, he was left with what looked like a snakes hole or burrow. Except it was dug into the face of the wall, and was roughly a foot off the ground he stood on.

He didn't think any snakes could get into it, it being so high, unless they could climb straight up the rock face, or could somehow get a running jump before slithering straight into it.

Thinking over his work, picturing a widened cave with small holes and rooms, Clyde realized it was perhaps premature of him to attempt.

As he began to transmute more res from stone to air, he did so heading down, instead of widening the hole or making it deeper along the crevice, he was making it taller, slowly eating downward to meet with the bottom of the stone wall.

His mind was now filled with some of the pycon he'd met in Syliras, and he now pictured a small home fitted to one of them.

That, perhaps, was more within his range of ability as he started such things.

[Sayana]

Sayana dashed along the rocky river banks, heading downstream with the flow of the current. At first the vegetation was still sparse but then more grasses and bushes cropped up with the occasional tree here and there. As she found sticks upon the ground, she gathered them and placed them within her bag. She even spotted a large dead branch on one of the trees. Reaching high, she gripped the branch and used her weight to snap it free. She then proceeded to break it into sizeable chunks that would fit easily into her bag.

Dry wood snapped and was good for fires, whereas wood that just bent awkwardly and didn’t seem to snap… usually it was attached to a living tree of sorts. Wood that crumbled or fell apart was just as bad, since it was usually rotting or infested with bugs.

When she came across a much larger fallen tree that didn’t appear to be rotten inside, she took out her splitting axe to hack some big pieces. It took several swings and was more work than she had thought. Was the wood just harder, or denser? Or was it just a different type of tree? She wasn’t sure about the leaf pattern, but she slipped one of the leaves into her bag so she might remember it.

However, as she loaded up her arms with the wood and began to head back to the stream a sudden rattling stopped her dead in her tracks. Looking down, her foot was only a couple inches from a coiled snake with its tail held up, buzzing and rattling. Her breath caught in her chest. It was rather similar to the vipers of Eyktol, though its behavior a little different. Ever so slowly she moved her foot away from the snake. For a moment, it looked like the rattler was shifting to follow after her, and she got out one of her longer sticks in attempt to impede it or distract it. But it was only a fleeting thought since the snake settled back down and continued to rattle its warning.

Much more paranoid, even when she had made sufficient space for the snake, Sayana now gently brushed aside vegetation as she walked. The initial scare was gone, but she would have been a lot less lucky had she accidentally stepped on the rattler.

By the time she got back to the stream, Sayana noticed a fairly calm and shallow place that was simply teaming with fish. Her eyes widened eagerly and she took off her boots to step into the shallows. Almost immediately, fish darted this way and that, mostly disappearing into deeper waters.

Sayana had brought the cooking pot to hopefully bring back enough water for a soup. But fish… that would be much better. As she stood in the shallows, she got out the metal pot and tossed her back to the river bank. Then she stood still, feeling the cold water numbing her feet and shins. It was five or so chimes before the fish began to return to the area. Could it be a spawning area? She didn’t really know what had attracted them. All she knew was she was now amidst them as they swam about the shallows. Holding the pot aloft, she waited and tried not to cast any obvious shadows, particularly moving ones.

As two fish seemed to be within easy reach, Sayana bent her legs slightly and made her move. Plunging the pot sharply into the water she attempted to scoop them out. But she hadn’t accounted for the fact that as soon the pot hit the water, it was slowed substantially due to having to push through all that water. The fish darted away in panic and Sayana was left with a big pot of water.

Pouring it out, she decided to have one more go. It took longer for the fish to return, but eventually they did. Her next target would be just one fish and a bit bigger too. And she would only go for it if it was near the surface. It became an exercise in patience and she was more than once tempted to just return to the campsite empty handed. But at last when the moment presented itself, she was ready.

She scooped the fish quickly from near the surface and within ticks it was flopping in the pot attempting to jump out. The potential for it to escape suddenly dawned on her and she rushed to the river bank. Just as it was leaping out of the pot, she slapped it hard with a free high hand. The fish landed on the ground and in the next tick she flipped the empty pot over top of it. There were movements from the fish from within its land prison, but it eventually subsided. Her heart was still racing from her efforts, but after she flipped the pot over and deposited the dead fish into it with a little water, she was grinning from the achievement.

Not long after, she returned to the campsite with the wood, fish, and filled waterskins. Clyde, on the other hand, had been just as busy. As she set down her things she curiously went over to where he was working.

“What are you creating? Are you using reimancy to do it?” Sayana asked tentatively. If it was clear by now what it was, she’d still want to know what his interpretation was of his creation.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde continued at his work, making small motions occasionally with his free hand as he mentally guided the motion of the res. The small hand and finger motions simply aided his focus, as he was rather new to the specific task he was attempting.

Now that he had a decent depth of a snake burrow, his next task was the draw the stone downward till the front end met the level of the ground he stood upon.

A downward motion of his hand similar to patting or pushing something downward was met with the mental focus on the djed being pushed downward. With a similar licking and eroding motion he ate into the stone, turning more of it to air and removing layer after layer.

He had just finished the first row which served as the entrance to the tiny cave, perhaps an inch or two deep, and was about to do another few inches, when Sayana returned.

When she asked what it was he did Clyde simply gestured at the hole, followed by another downward gesture as he began eating downward into another few inches of the stone.

The glisten of silvery liquid res being manipulated within the hole and soaked into the stone, along with occasional beads dribbling out of Cha to replace what was expended or transmuted was clearly visible from their short distance.

Once he eroded downward from the track he'd cut several feet along the route of the crack, he'd have a foot tall cave wide enough for a snake to enter.

His next task, he could see, would be widening it since he didn't think pycon were as thin or narrow as a snake. But first he needed to make the height correct and dug down to foot height all the way to the far back of the initial snake burrow he'd dug.

“Its to by a cave for pycon. I'm simply expanding what was there, deepening, broadening, widening. It was hidden within the stone already, I'm just lending time energy and effort.”

“As I said, destroying is easy, making is hard. Manipulating is easy likewise, but remaking or building, that is hard.”

Turning to Sayana for a moment, he stared into her eyes.

“What of you Say, what have you built instead of destroying? Or as in this case, built by destroying.”

[Sayana]

Sayana watched in fascination as Clyde worked his magic. It was definitely the same magic he had used the previous night to make the fire pit. Reimancy. The same silvery liquid emerged from his staff and little bit by little bit, he seemed to dissolve away the rock. Was he making an element or destroying an element?

When he answered her question, she could see the resemblance. A little cave in the side of the rock that a pycon could fit into. She was about to comment on the cave when he asked her about experience in building things.

“I build relationships all the time,” she replied with a slight pause to think about it. “Sometimes they are destroyed, sometimes abandoned, but many times still left standing when I see the person again. Similarly, I have information sources.” She chose not to go into depth on her second point, merely hinting at the implications.

“But I do create. I used to do a lot of dancing and performing in shows. I can bring people together and lead them. I have led people to the destruction of others… as well as their own destruction.” For a moment she paused, thinking of the time she had been in Alvadas. “I would like to do more of that.”

“I also cook.”

Her last statement contrasted sharply with its humble tone. She turned away to pick up the pot with the fish in it and set it down by the fire pit. Slowly she set to work setting up sticks for a fire. Her various hands worked together as she felt out the different sized pieces of sticks to form the triangular shape. She briefly noted the direction of the wind, then positioned herself upwind of the fire pit and struck the flint against the steel creating sparks. It took a couple tries, but soon the tinder caught and she blew softly upon the flame.

“There was also that time when I met you and I built my first shelter. It wasn’t the best, as I’m sure you recall, but it was something, and made of wood. Not like your stone there.” As she spoke she began washing the fish in the bit of water. Taking out a dagger, she flipped over the pot onto the rocky ground to serve as a make-shift table. After a moment to recall the process, she made a smooth cut behind the fins, then angled the blade to skim the spine all the way down to the tail. She flipped the fish over and repeated the process on the other side until she had two fillets of fish. Her cuts could have been less jagged, but she could do with the minor loss of meat.

Afterwards she put the fish in the pot with fresh water and placed it near the flames of the fire. Turning to look critically at the mage’s handiwork, she commented on the cave.

“So… what if the pycon doesn’t want to live in a cave? What if it’s cold and dark and damp? My apartment in Syliras used to be like that. Cold, and dark. Maybe some warm soft fabric would make it more friendly to the pycon. Colourful fabric. You know how pycons are. Curious and adventurous and creative…”

The Eypharian added a couple more sticks to the fire then took out a couple of straight sturdy looking ones, about the size of the opening in the rock. “If I may?” She asked, gesturing to the cave and hoping she could be allowed to get closer to it. If the mage let her, she would place the two sticks like pillars. They weren’t a perfect fit, but enough to get the idea across. “It’s probably better to have some supports than super thick cold stone.”

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Having done the height and depth, now Clyde needed to focus on deepening it. From his short time in working on cutting out the cave, he'd come to understand the importance of not doing things all at once.

Along with being less stressful in terms of djed used, it also made the task easier and more accurate. If for instance he'd tried to do depth, height, and width, all of them at once, he didn't doubt he'd have done a much rougher job. As it was doing it one at a time, expanding in bits and once a rough guide had been sorted out, he was able to do much better.

Exuding more res he began to cut into the walls of the cave, starting with an inch deep cut to the left side of the entrance, an inch deep and a inch wide. Once he carried that measured cut out he'd repeat the process on the right side. Then, with a guide to cut by, he would simply cut upward until the entire front inch of the cave was cut out at the proper size.

And then once that was done, he could see by his plan, he'd have a guide for widening the width of the entire cave an inch on either side. That would perhaps in and of itself be enough for a simple pycon cave.

Clyde simply nodded at Sayana's comment as he worked, focusing his eyes on her while he continued to let his aura sight grasp the slowly expanding cave.

Within his aura sight the cave slightly hummed from the transmutations of djed in progress.

“Yes, but building relationships is much easier than taking them apart, right? As I said, it is easy to destroy, difficult to build and create.”

He pondered for a half moment over her mentioning of informants, considering that perhaps technically by her description she was one of his informants.

Having finished the first nub of a cut on the left, he continued on to his planned cut on the right side.

He watched with his mundane eyes as she cut apart the fish, noting absently the places she cut and what she cut, which might be a useful thing to know if he ever needed to prepare some fish. But his main focus was within his aura sight and djed use in Reimantically creating the cave.

“If a pycon wants to live here, I'm sure they can add whatever they want to make it more comfortable. I'm just making the simple dwelling, they can furnish it themselves. Besides, stone will last, if I put in those types of things the elements or animals would quickly destroy or take them.”

“As for being damp... I have some ideas for that, same as for the fire pit, but I've not quite got the required abilities for such things. I'm not nearly so well practiced with some magics as others. But then, most mages do tend to focus on one or two, even if they dabble in others and have them as lesser skills.”

Clyde continued his work as Sayana propped up some sticks within the cave entrance. Seeing as it was cut into the deep stone, he doubted it would have much of an effect one way or another. Though he supposed it it was a larger cave, or one nearer to the top of the stone roof of the hilly ground above, then such supports or columns might be needed.

By then he had cut the initial guiding cut an inch deep and wide onto each side of the entrance, into which the sticks were slotted. However he didn't stop there, slowly cutting backward along his guidance cut to go deeper on either side in tandem as he'd planned from before.

“What is it that you really want Sayana? I've taught you Auristics. You already knew Hypnotism. Are you satisfied? Will you focus on those two, learn them, become great in them? Or not? Or are you going to go off in search of other magics, trying to learn other new ones, before you've fully learned these two? What is it you seek Sayana? I give no promises I will help you in anything foolish, but I am interested to know.”

[Sayana]

“Sometimes wood can be faster. Especially if you need help from others. If you need someone to chop down a tree in the middle of the forest, you just need the manpower. But if you need people to shape rock like that… You’ll need mages or one hell of a lot of manpower.”

Even though he had a point about durability, Sayana was thinking much larger scale than the small pycon cave. A fortress like Syliras would have taken years, decades to build. And it was certainly not done all at once. But a village of wooden cottages, when there was the Bronze Woods right next door? Probably far easier.

Regardless, she tossed the two sticks into the flame and gave the fish a stir within the pot. It simmered in the inch of water but it still looked pretty raw. She adjusted the pot somewhat to be closer to the fire, but she was careful not to burn her hands on the hot metal, nor tip the pot over. Instead she utilized sticks to maneuver it.

The mage’s questions gave her pause. What did she want? However, his line of questioning was withdrawn from her true wants and desires from the mage. Still, she chose to humor him.

“What sort of magics do I wish to learn?” Sayana questioned as she turned her focus away from the cooking and over to meet Clyde’s gaze. “I do intend to excel in both hypnotism and auristics. Hypnotism will always have a soft spot in my heart and I see many uses for auristics. Do I intend to utterly master them before moving on? Not necessarily. If there are other magics that I see immediate applicable uses for, I would welcome the opportunity to learn them. But, if you’ll excuse me, your glyphing doesn’t seem like something I would do well at unless somehow it can tie into hypnotism.”

She paused and took a slow unhurried look about their campsite and the surrounding landscape. It was quiet and they were alone. She decided to play out some of her cards.

“But I know you like to teach and I know I will continue learning more about magic just by being with you or traveling with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you know half a dozen to a dozen types. Magecrafting…” By now she knew that it was a distinct magic, even if she wasn’t sure what it involved. “…Glyphing, Auristics, Reimancy. And then that dark black magic you used. Unless that was another form of Reimancy.” She paused and tallied them up on her fingers. Already she was at five.

“I must admit, I do not know how many are out there. Or what they do. So I don’t think I’d be able to answer your question very well at the moment.”

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

While he listened and spoke Clyde continued on, slowly eroding deeper along the line of the cave he'd set before, now nothing to do except steadily deep the two inch long gashes all the way to the back of the cave.

Once he was done with that his simple pycon cave-let would be done, his first true act of creation, design, building, and implementation, all using Reimancy to do the physical aspect of the construction.

He did however slow his progress as he listened to her response on magic, curious to hear what she'd say. However he wasn't to surprised by her words, more or less having them line up with his expectations.

He'd met so few mages after all interested in being purists. And Sayana had already shown her hunger for djed, and for casting magic. Learning more therefore was a clear linear progression of that. He hadn't expected her to be happy with what she had, but he'd somewhat hoped for her sake she would be.

“To be honest, I don't think you understand Glyphing, few do. Glyphing touches and is of use to every magic, even the ones you use. And when you get decent, its a good method of magic storage, of storing completed spells of your creation for later use. Though yes at lower levels it tends to have simpler applications, such as aiding you in focusing and drawing magic to use. Its one of the reasons its such a commonly used magic, as its of use to any mage using almost any magic. And when you are as skilled as I... Well...”

Suddenly Clyde's mind fell to the set of djd shackles he'd completed in Nyka, which he still had in his possession. Perhaps they would be a good display of some of the possibilities of the magic?

“Well then it comes into its own right with some unique uses impossible to lesser wielders.”

Clyde paused for a moment, giving Sayana a moment to ponder his words and their hinting of meaning, before continuing.

“Honestly though, I think you have enough magics on your plate right now. Perhaps once you've gotten decent with the ones you have, but at the moment you've just started Auristics, and I'm sure your Hypnotism could use some work. When one tries to do too many things at once, they usually end up just doing those more things poorly, rather than doing a few select things well.”

“That black magic was called voiding. As for how many magics there are out there... I personally know of over a dozen magics, not counting gnosis from gods, and I am sure there are others I've not heard of. Of course I've heard of more than I can do, there are several magics I have seen used, but can't use myself. And others I've no interest in learning to use, but which I know of in passing.”

“I honestly think you'd be better served though focusing on what you have, rather than learning new ones. And so long as you are working with me, I could make whatever you needed with Glyphing. You can barely handle the magics you have now without overgiving and over casting, without giving in and failing to fight temptation, let alone with more magics added to the mix. You need to work on your self control with magic, and on meditation, if nothing else.”

[Sayana]

Sayana listened to the mage’s explanation of glyphing. Had it been another topic, she might have been annoyed at his blatant statement that she didn’t understand it, but in this case all she really knew about glyphing was that it was used to create grand oaths. Focusing, storing of magic, drawing magic to it… There seemed to be some potential for it, although she preferred to do magic in the moment.

At first she assumed that he was referring to the grand oath when he left his statement hanging. But as she looked at his face, there was something about his expression that he was keeping some piece of information hidden, merely teasing or hinting at it. So maybe there was more to glyphing than just grand oaths? Regardless, he was well skilled in the magic.

Then his instructor’s tone returned, and she smiled before tending to her cooking once more. The fish was sizzling nicely in the inch of water at the bottom of the pot. She flipped the fillet over, scraping the bottom of the pot where it stuck, and repeated the process for the other fillet. Still listening to the mage, she got up to retrieve her waterskin and some concentrated traveler’s stock that a merchant had persuaded her to buy. As the fish seemed to cook through, she poured some more water into the pot and added some of the thick paste to the mixture, stirring as she went. The fish was now soft and tender, and she broke it up into smaller pieces for the soup.

Doing too many things at once… perhaps it was an Eypharian thing. Sayana paused in her cooking and returned her attention to the mage.

She perked up at the name of the black magic. Voiding. That was definitely not a magic she was inclined to pursue. She had hoped her previous comment would have drawn him in to reveal what types of magic he knew, but he still confirmed her rough guess as to how many he knew. He had said he knew of ‘over a dozen magics’ but he hadn’t said ‘dozens’. So likely he knew of no more than twenty-four. And of those, there were several he didn’t know but wanted to know, and some that he didn’t know and didn’t care to learn. Then there was the divine magic.

She nodded briefly at his advice regarding learning new magics. She did actually intend to get substantially better at both hypnotism and auristics before trying anything new. Although she had to bite her tongue at his mention of her lack of self-control.

Placing a high hand on his forearm she replied, “Clyde, I know there is a lot for me to work on. But I will get better. You’ll see. I’m not power hungry for magic. I’d rather be stronger at a few than terrible at many. But I always want to be learning and challenging myself to get better.”

She dropped her hand to give the pot another stir then leaned back on her low hands gazing at the sky almost wistfully. “You know, I probably had the chance to learn reimancy once. I didn’t. There was a man I loved who was a reimancer. He was strong, powerful… And he even loved me back. Passionately, intensely. I didn’t know he was a reimancer when I first met him. He kept it from me for quite some time actually. Along with other secrets. But when he did finally tell me, I loved him all the more. His element was fire. I still remember that simple flame hovering above his finger.”

The Eypharian let out a long sigh. “But complications arose and we are no longer together. Nothing to do with the magic, but life brings about its own challenges.”

“Soup? It’s nothing special but it’s a change from hard bread and dried meat. It might actually go quite well with the bread.” She had only brought one bowl and a spoon. But she’d offer it to the mage and eat her own portion out of the pot.

Credit: Shimoje